A sermon on Mark 10:17-31.
To enter into eternal life, the realm of God, is to enter into God’s extravagant, self-giving love.
St. Paul says we are saved by grace apart from the works of the law. But the gospels don’t agree. They say we gain eternal life and salvation by doing God’s will. Now, it might be said that doing God’s will must begin with faith, or we end up like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal, doing God’s will begrudgingly and resentfully, and only with the offer of a reward. But the gospels don’t get into the question faith versus works very much. The idea is that we are saved by the fruit we produce, and condemned for producing none.
Today’s story carries the first and last mentions of the phrase “eternal life” in Mark’s gospel, which is rather striking. I think we may presume that it has to do with the resurrection of the dead, an expectation many Jews believed in. It’s hard two thousand years later to fully understand this hope. For some it was a metaphorical hope in a resuscitation of Israel as a nation, sort of a first century “Make Israel Great Again” campaign, except Israel was not the most powerful economy in the world, as America is. Quite the contrary; it was a tiny, poor nation occupied by a foreign empire.
For others though, there was a real hope that someday the dead would be raised, some to eternal death, and some to eternal life. The man who came to Jesus in today’s story used an image of inheritance. How, he seems to be asking, do we stay in our Father’s good graces so that we might inherit his eternal life?
As the story unfolds, though, we learn that the man has been practicing Judaism faithfully all his life, yet somehow he feels a lack, and this is why he comes to Jesus. Somehow, personal righteousness has not been cutting it for him.
This is one of the most emotional stories in Mark, and Mark is an emotionally-charged gospel. This story is also one of the few times the verb agapo, meaning self-giving love, is used. Jesus, Mark says, loved this man, meaning specifically that Jesus wanted to give himself to this man’s spiritual growth and health. He wanted to invite this man to become his disciple.
And so he tells the man the truth about following him. He tells him to sell what he has and give it to the poor.
The word our my bible translates “shocked” might also be translated “appalled”. It is exactly the reaction of Peter to Jesus’ announcement that he was going to Jerusalem to be killed, and that following him meant self-denial and even dying on a cross. I want to be careful not to make any assumptions about this man Mark doesn’t tell us to make, but it seems to me that his problem is much like the disciples’.
To put it over-simply: the disciples wanted to take what Jesus was giving, but Jesus wanted them to give as he gave, abundantly, extravagantly. The disciples wanted to be blessed, Jesus wanted them to be a blessing. The rich man wanted to add eternal life to his list of possessions, but Jesus wanted him to give his possessions for eternal life, just as Jesus would give his life so that God would raise him from the dead.
The God whose kingdom Jesus proclaimed is all give and no take. To enter into his life, his kingdom, his heaven, is to enter into self-giving to any and all who are in need.
Jesus offered his love to the man, but the man couldn’t accept it, because he loved his possessions more. The rich man therefore went away sorrowing for his eternal death, unable to imagine how he could so radically change his way of life.
The world has changed a lot since then in many ways, but in this way, not so much. Perhaps more now than then, possessions and wealth are worshiped and glorified, and most of the world’s human population do not have everything they need for the life God intends for them.
The church therefore continues to have an urgent mission.
Philippi was founded by people who didn’t have much. The ancestors of our old families were watermen, wooden boat builders, small farmers, small business owners. But they understood something we may be forgetting. To follow Jesus means to give extravagantly.
Throughout Philippi’s history, certain of its members gave extravagantly, so that the message of Jesus could reach more people, soften more hearts, encourage more generosity, more grace, more peace, and most of all, equip those in a position to do so to care for those in need in our community and around the world.
It is an old Deltaville tradition, one might say, to understand that wealth and its pursuit is deeply dangerous to one’s spiritual condition. Of course, we live in a country that runs mostly on capitalism, and if we are to be good citizens, we need to participate, competing for capital like everyone else, in hopes that the system will work for all.
But for spiritual well-being, those who have made Philippi what it is have chosen to give extravagantly of their wealth, their time, and their skills and talents, not just to save themselves, but to be there for their neighbors and for everyone who is in any kind of need.
For those who may be encountering Jesus for the first time, these teachings seem harsh. But Jesus is looking at each one of you, and he loves you. He is holding a mirror up to you that may not show you what you want to see, but he does it so that you might grow. But most of all, he offers himself to empower you to do what seems impossible.
A few of the words we heard this morning are key:
“No one is good but God alone.” Karl Barth, a great theologian of the last century, said that whenever we think about ethics, we should start with this saying. Goodness is in God, and God alone. If we are seeking goodness, seek it in God.
“For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” I don’t know who has what or who gives what here at Philippi. But I’m pretty sure there are some very wealthy people among us, and I’m also pretty sure that they give extravagantly to support Philippi. I’m also sure that there are those among us who have little, but who also share extravagantly with us. The power to do this is not in us, but in God, who is the ultimate giver.
“There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age–houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions–and in the age to come eternal life.” This is not the health-and-wealth gospel so popular in America these days (Give to the church and God will make you wealthy!). The truth is that there are far more poor folks in the world than rich ones. When we willingly join with them in the realm of God, we become wealthier by far than billions of dollars could make us.
Philippi, in many ways, is a new church start that inherits a great tradition along with a generous endowment and a very nice church building. The old generation, the one who understood that radical self-giving is basic to following Jesus, is passing away. They have given us a chance to shape something new, but there needs to be a new generation not just of regular attenders, but of people ready to embrace the way of extravagant and generous self-giving for the sake of the gospel, trusting in the promise of eternal life, now and in the age to come.
Amen.
